Adolf Ehrtmann

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Adolf Ehrtmann (born March 15, 1897 in Frankfurt am Main ; † March 7, 1979 in Lübeck ) was a German politician ( center , CDU ).

Life

Origin and occupation

As the younger of two brothers, he came to Frankfurt a. M. born Adolf Ehrtmann moved to Lübeck just a few months after his birth. He grew up in the modest milieu of a Catholic family of craftsmen. After completing secondary school, he joined the German life insurance company in Lübeck. At the beginning of 1923 he became an authorized signatory at a Lübeck coal company, and in March 1925 he was finally managing director of the “Gemeinnützige Siedlungsgenossenschaft eGmbH” in Lübeck. Here he was responsible for the construction of more than a hundred settlement houses in the suburbs. Also in 1925 he became Rendant (managing director) of the Catholic Church in Lübeck and thus also managing director of the Lübeck Marienkrankenhaus.

politics

In November 1918 Ehrtmann joined the Center Party, of which he was one of the founders in the Protestant Lübeck. With his ideas for social reform he belonged to the left wing of the center. He also maintained good personal relationships with Julius Leber , the head of the Lübeck SPD . On November 14, 1926 Ehrtmann was elected to the Lübeck citizenship, to which he belonged until 1933.

Resistance to National Socialism

During the time of National Socialism Ehrtmann tried to activate religious work for men and young people in the Catholic Church, since official Catholic associations had been banned. After he was released from the Wehrmacht in 1941, he joined the Lübeck resistance against the Nazi regime, which came from the three Catholic young priests of the Sacred Heart Congregation , Johannes Prassek , Hermann Lange and Eduard Müller . In addition, there was the Protestant pastor at the Luther Church, Karl Friedrich Stellbrink . Like these clergymen, Ehrtmann campaigned for the prohibited listening to foreign channels and distributed the sermons of the bishop of Münster, Clemens August Graf von Galen , which were directed against Nazi policy, as well as other pamphlets. In the spring of 1942 Ehrtmann was taken to Lauerhof prison. On June 22nd and 23rd, 1943, together with the four clergymen and a group of 17 other Catholic lay people, including Stephan Pfürtner , he was tried before the 2nd Senate of the Berlin People's Court , who had traveled to Lübeck especially for this purpose. As the propaganda inexplicable strategy of the People's Court was how to show the clergy as deceivers and the laity than the seduced, Ehrtmann was not, as the four ministers to death, but to five years in prison convicted. At the beginning of May 1945 Ehrtmann and his fellow prisoners were freed from the Brandenburg prison by Soviet soldiers .

Work in the post-war period

After his return to Lübeck, Ehrtmann immediately became politically active again. He was a founding member of a non-denominational party that, after some discussions, constituted itself as the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In March 1946 he was appointed Lübeck Senator for Construction and on November 14, 1946 elected to the first citizenship. He served as first deputy mayor for eleven years. Ehrtmann campaigned for the preservation of Lübeck's historic old town . His work in rebuilding the old town and creating new suburban settlements can hardly be overestimated. In 1957 he was honored with the Freiherr vom Stein Medal . In 1970 he received the Lübeck commemorative coin " Bene Merenti ".

Ehrtmann died on March 7, 1979 in Lübeck and was buried in the Burgtorfriedhof . At the request of the “ecumenical working group 10 November Lübeck Martyrs”, his grave was declared an honorary grave in 2018.

literature

  • Martin Thoemmes : Adolf Ehrtmann. In: Günter letter , Brigitte Kaff, Hans-Otto Kleinmann (ed.): Christian democrats against Hitler. From persecution and resistance to the Union. Freiburg 2004, pp. 148–154.
  • Martin Thoemmes: "Lord make us free". The records of the resistance fighter and Lübeck politician Adolf Ehrtmann from his time in captivity and his liberation in 1945 , in: Der Wagen. Lübeck contributions to culture and society, Lübeck 2004, pp. 240–261.
  • Martin Thoemmes: Adolf Ehrtmann , in: Neue Lübecker Lebenslaufen, Neumünster 2010, pp. 186–190 (= Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Vol. 12, pp. 95–99)
  • Karl-Ernst Sinner: Tradition and Progress. Senate and Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck 1918-2007 , Volume 46 of Series B of the Publications on the History of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck published by the Archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck , Lübeck 2008

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hildegard Ehrtmann, "Memories of Adolf Ehrtmann", in: Isabella Spolovjnak-Pridat and Helmut Siepenkort (ed.): Ecumenism in resistance. The Lübeck Christian Trial in 1943. Lübeck: 2002, pp. 105–119.
  2. ^ Anton Breindl: Memories of Adolf Ehrtmann. Estate (Lübeck: 1994).
  3. ↑ Else Pelke: The Lübeck Christian Trial 1943. (Mainz: Grünewald 1961).
  4. ↑ Honorary grave for Adolf Ehrtmann. In: Lübecker Nachrichten . March 8, 2018, p. 13.
personal data
SURNAME Ehrtmann, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (center, CDU)
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1979
Place of death Lübeck